Boeing Unveils Unmanned Phantom Eye Demonstrator

ST. LOUIS — The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny [NYSE: BA] today unveiled the hydro­gen-pow­ered Phan­tom Eye unmanned air­borne sys­tem, a demon­stra­tor that will stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days.

Unmanned Phantom Eye Demonstrator
Unmanned Phantom Eye Demonstrator
Unmanned Phan­tom Eye Demon­stra­tor
Boe­ing Com­pa­ny
Click to enlarge

“Phan­tom Eye is the first of its kind and could open up a whole new mar­ket in col­lect­ing data and com­mu­ni­ca­tions,” Dar­ryl Davis, pres­i­dent of Boe­ing Phan­tom Works, said today at the unveil­ing cer­e­mo­ny in St. Louis. “It is a per­fect exam­ple of turn­ing an idea into a real­i­ty. It defines our rapid pro­to­typ­ing efforts and will demon­strate the art-of-the-pos­si­ble when it comes to per­sis­tent intel­li­gence, sur­veil­lance and recon­nais­sance. The capa­bil­i­ties inher­ent in Phan­tom Eye’s design will offer game-chang­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for our mil­i­tary, civ­il and com­mer­cial customers.” 

Lat­er this sum­mer, Phan­tom Eye will be shipped to NASA’s Dry­den Flight Research Cen­ter at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to begin a series of ground and taxi tests in prepa­ra­tion for its first flight in ear­ly 2011. That debut flight is expect­ed to last between four and eight hours. 

“The pro­gram is mov­ing quick­ly, and it’s excit­ing to be part of such a unique air­craft,” said Drew Mal­low, Phan­tom Eye pro­gram man­ag­er for Boe­ing. “The hydro­gen propul­sion sys­tem will be the key to Phan­tom Eye’s suc­cess. It is very effi­cient and offers great fuel econ­o­my, and its only byprod­uct is water, so it’s also a ‘green’ aircraft.” 

Phan­tom Eye is pow­ered by two 2.3‑liter, four-cylin­der engines that pro­vide 150 horse­pow­er each. It has a 150-foot wingspan, will cruise at approx­i­mate­ly 150 knots and can car­ry up to a 450-pound payload. 

Key Phan­tom Eye sup­pli­ers and part­ners include Ford Motor Com­pa­ny (engines); Auro­ra Flight Sci­ences (wing); Mahle Pow­er­train (propul­sion con­trols); Ball Aero­space (fuel tanks); Tur­boso­lu­tions Engi­neer­ing (tur­bocharg­ers); the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; and NASA

A unit of The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is one of the world’s largest defense, space and secu­ri­ty busi­ness­es spe­cial­iz­ing in inno­v­a­tive and capa­bil­i­ties-dri­ven cus­tomer solu­tions, and the world’s largest and most ver­sa­tile man­u­fac­tur­er of mil­i­tary air­craft. Head­quar­tered in St. Louis, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is a $34 bil­lion busi­ness with 68,000 employ­ees worldwide. 

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Con­tact:
Chris Had­dox
Boe­ing Phan­tom Works
Office: 314–234-6447
Mobile: 314–707-8891
chris.d.haddox@boeing.com

Deb­o­rah Van­Nierop
Boe­ing Phan­tom Works
Mobile: 210–454-2656
deborah.a.vannierop@boeing.com

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